Bowen Yang Reveals Why He Left Saturday Night Live Mid-Season
Bowen Yang was actually live from New York a little longer than expected.
The Saturday Night Live alum admitted he was “resolute” about leaving the series following its 50th season because it was “the right time,” though creator Lorne Michaels persuaded him to stay on for a few more episodes.
“I never felt like I was that central to it, to be honest,” Yang of his seven-season stint on SNL during the June 8 episode of Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors series. “I feel like there was a weird utility to me. I never played the dad or the straight-man teacher. I was always there as the seasoning, and I’m like, ‘That’s great. I’m so lucky. I can’t believe I have a steady job in comedy. I will cherish it for the rest of my life.’”
But after coming to terms with the belief that SNL would be in “a great place” without him, the 35-year-old got a call from Michaels to return for half of the 51st season in order to “set an example” for the show’s newest cast members.
“It was the first time I felt someone who made so many things possible for me being like, ‘I need you,’” he continued. “I’m like, ‘I’m not going to turn that down.’”
Now, after following through with his decision to stay, the comedian noted, “I felt good about it.”
Indeed, Yang shared that he received an encouraging message from current SNL breakout star Ashley Padilla during his sendoff in December, who wrote to him, “You taught me how to be at this show, how to behave and how to treat people, and thank you. I’ll never forget that.”
Will Heath/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
As for how Yang feels about his final sketch on the show, during which his thinly-veiled character says farewell to his favorite job? He said, “That’s the thing I’m proudest of.”
“The thing that broke me was just saying, ‘The thing I love most about this place is the people. Look how hard they work,’” he explained. “I’m between Ariana Grande and Cher, and I look out, and it’s basically every single person who works at that show. I’d never seen that before for anyone else’s departure.”
He added, “I was like, ‘Oh, this is the most rewarding snapshot I can ever internalize in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever encounter this ever again.’”
Read on for a look back at other stars you may not have known were part of the Saturday Night Live cast.
Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Robert Downey Jr.
Role: Cast member
Time on SNL: 1985-1986
Long before Robert Downey Jr. was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was part of the Saturday Night Live universe.
The Iron Man star was on the show for only season 11, with him joining SNL the same year creator Lorne Michaels returned to the program after being away for five years. The Peacock documentary SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night called this period "The Weird Year" and described it as a tough time in which Lorne was trying to save the show from cancellation.
As Robert admitted on a 2016 episode of The Howard Stern Show, "It wasn't like we were blowing everyone's minds."
However, the Oscar winner noted he looks back at that stretch "fondly" and that it provided "great training." In fact, Robert, who returned to host SNL in 1996, told Howard Stern, "It is probably the most exciting week you can have on Earth."
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Rob Riggle
Role: Featured performer
Time on SNL: 2004 to 2005
If you ever need manifesting advice, maybe ask Rob Riggle. The Let's Be Cops actor previously revealed how he went from training to become a pilot to setting his intentions to be on SNL.
"I hadn't quit anything in my life," he recalled on a 2024 episode of the Diggin' Deep Podcast. "I said, 'If I quit, it's gotta matter. It's gotta count. So what am I going to do?' The first thing I wrote was ‘I’m going to get on Saturday Night Live’ in that book. Ten years later, two wars, a marriage, a child, in September of 2004—almost to the day—I got on Saturday Night Live. So you write your things down, you commit to them and you do them."
In fact, it was how Rob got his start in show business.
"My first job ever was Saturday Night Live," he added on a 2023 interview with The A.V. Club, "and I think that was a dream come true."
Raymond Bonar/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Ben Stiller
Role: Featured performer
Time on SNL: Less than a season in 1989
Ben Stiller had a short run on Saturday Night Live—like really short.
In fact, according to The New York Times, the Zoolander star was on the sketch comedy series for only four episodes. And he still remembers Lorne's reaction when he quit.
"He was like, 'OK. Ben’s going to do what Ben’s going to do,'" he said in his best Lorne voice during a January 2025 episode of The New York Times' The Interview podcast. "It wasn’t great, but I knew that I couldn’t do well there because I wasn’t great at live performing."
Ben added he "got too nervous" on the show, "didn’t enjoy it" and wanted to make short films instead. Plus, he was interested in doing 1990's The Ben Stiller Show on MTV.
"It had been my dream to be on Saturday Night Live," the Severance director continued while reflecting on his decision to leave, "but looking back on it, I don’t remember exactly how I had the gumption, but for whatever reason, I followed that instinct."
Still, Ben has occasionally returned—hosting in 1998 and 2011 as well as making surprise cameos over the years.
Raymond Bonar/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Bob Odenkirk
Role: Writer
Time on SNL: 1987 - 1995
You better call your friends and tell them Bob Odenkirk was once a writer on Saturday Night Live. In fact, the Better Call Saul star wrote the famous sketch in which the late Chris Farley played Matt Foley—a motivational speaker who lived in a van down by the river.
"I wrote that alone in my apartment in Chicago when we were doing Second City together," Bob recalled on a 2021 episode of The Howard Stern Show. "It's one of the few sketches—and I've written thousands of sketches—but not many of them are done the way you wrote them when you sat down and wrote them. And that's one of them. That motivational speaker came out just like that, perfect. And of course, Chris elevates it to a whole other place."
The actor even won an Emmy for his writing on SNL. However, he's expressed regret over how he behaved at the time.
"I wish I wasn't such a stuck-up young man," Bob admitted on a 2021 episode of PeopleTV's Couch Surfing. "I wish I was a sweeter fellow because I had a great opportunity there. I made the most of it. I learned a lot about comedy writing and I made some great friends for life at that show, but I still wish I'd just handled it better. But don't you always wish that about your young self?"
Saturday Night Live/YouTube
Laurie Metcalf
Role: Featured performer
Time on SNL: Two cameos, one in 1981 and one in 1988
If you don't remember seeing Laurie Metcalf on Saturday Night Live, it's probably because she had only two brief appearances. As she once recalled on Late Night with SNL alum Seth Meyers, the first was in 1981 when she did a "man on the street" bit, and the second was in 1988 when she starred in "Laurie Has a Story" with Catherine O'Hara.
"You know, it seems like a dream because it was so long ago and it was a whirlwind five days I spent in New York," the Lady Bird actress also told Vulture in 2019. "I think it was my first trip to New York ever. I didn’t know anybody and I was put up in a hotel. They put me in a business suit and sent me out on the street with a little mini–camera crew. I was so out of my element; I had no idea what I was doing. But I know that I did it because there is proof, there is footage. When I see that, I realize I was very naïve and brave about it in a way. Like, Okay, you want me to do this? Okay, let’s go."
Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Larry David
Role: Writer
Time on SNL: 1984-1985
The story of how Larry David quit his job as a Saturday Night Live writer will leave audiences laughing.
"My sketches would do very well at the readthrough, and then they would invariably get cut week after week after week," the Curb Your Enthusiasm star explained on a 2015 episode of The Howard Stern Show. "And then one night, before the show, another sketch of mine was cut at 11:25—five minutes before the show was to start. I had enough."
So, Larry continued, he walked over to executive producer Dick Ebersol and said, "This f--king show stinks. It stinks! It’s s--t! I’m done! I’m gone! F--k this! I’m out!”
As he walked home in the cold, he added, he realized what he had done and how much money he would lose. So, Larry returned the next week as if nothing had happened.
"There’s a writers’ meeting every Monday morning, and I walk into the meeting," he continued. "The writers had heard the outburst, and I sat down. And then he would go around and ask everybody what they were working on for the week. And I was about the fifth one on the couch. And then he got to me and I was like, 'Well, I’m thinking of doing this circus sketch.'"
Larry got to keep his job, staying for another year. But it was here the Seinfeld creator met his sitcom's star Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Over the years, Larry has hosted SNL twice and made many guest appearances, including playing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Role: Cast member
Time on SNL: 1982-1985
While many know Julia Louis-Dreyfus for her roles on Seinfeld and Veep, not everyone may remember that she was a cast member on SNL for three years. In fact, she was hired to join the show while she was still in college.
Still, the actress—whose husband Brad Hall was also on SNL—admits she didn't love her experience on Saturday Night Live.
"I didn't have tons of fun," she told Andy Cohen on a 2020 episode of Radio Andy. "No, but I did learn a ton. I was really super young. I was 21. I went into it very naively. So I learned a lot really quickly."
In fact, Julia likened SNL to "grad school" for comedy and said it helped influence which opportunities she took on in the future.
"I set my priorities straight for starters," she added. "I came out of that thinking, 'This wasn't as fun as I've had doing improv shows and Second City and all that kind of stuff back in Chicago. And I need to find that. And if I can't find that, if it doesn't exist, I'm not gonna do this.'"
Still, Julia has returned to SNL many times—making history in 2006 as the first female former cast member to host and taking on the role two more times.
M. Lewis Jr./NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Damon Wayans
Role: Featured performer
Time on SNL: Less than a season in 1986.
Damon Wayans' time on Saturday Night Live was also brief. In fact, he once revealed he got fired after seven shows.
"Eddie Murphy had just left," the My Wife and Kids star explained on a 2020 episode of The Breakfast Club. "So Lorne Michaels was trying, he thought, [to] protect me from being compared to Eddie Murphy. I was like, 'Look, give me the ball or let me go. Fire me from the team.' So, he wouldn't give me the ball, so I just switched characters during a live taping. I wanted to get fired."
Damon said he changed his character to be a "super, super flamboyant gay cop" in a sketch that was a spoof on Miami Vice called Mr. Monopoly.
"I did it with the wrong spirit," he continued, "and he was right to let me go. He was right to fire me. He fired me on the spot."
However, it seems that everything worked out in the end.
"He actually brought me back to host once, and that's cool," the actor added. "For me, I had to do that to do In Living Color. All the stuff I was trying to do on Saturday Night Live was actually stuff that I was able to do In Living Color."
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Jenny Slate
Role: Featured performer
Time on SNL: 2009 - 2010
Jenny Slate didn't have the best time on Saturday Night Live.
"I got on SNL, and then that experience was very intense—like just really disappointing," the actress said on Off Camera with Sam Jones in 2017. "Although it was also good. Everyone was really nice to me, but I was incredibly disappointed in myself. It was one of my childhood dreams. When I got there, I was not suited to the environment, I didn’t like it, I was really uncomfortable, and I never expected the environment to be so risk-averse. Like I thought, Belushi, Gilda Radner, these people are going to be crazy. No, this is a television show."
Ultimately, Jenny was on the show for one season.
"After I got fired, I was so humiliated in every way," she continued, "humiliated by how I behaved—that I wasn’t a strong person, I wasn’t joyful—and I thought that everybody cared. And nobody f--ing cares at all."
The I Want You Back star said she "couldn't get over it" and developed a case of stage fright—leading her to temporarily stop doing stand-up. However, she decided to not give up on her passion and told Sam Jones she got hypnotized to cure her stage fright.
"I do not need to let that experience take this thing away from me," she added, "the one thing that I do on my own."
Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Sarah Silverman
Role: Featured performer
Time on SNL: 1993-1994
While Sarah Silverman was there for only one season, she'll never forget her year on Saturday Night Live.
"I had a great time," the comedian recalled on a January 2025 episode of The Tonight Show starring fellow SNL alum Jimmy Fallon. "I got along with everybody and I was scrappy. I just remember being shocked how grown-ups behaved. 'Cause I was a kid. I was just like, 'I can't believe grown-ups are acting this way.' People would have big fights. Back then, there were like fist fights when I was there. But it was awesome."
And she still remembers an activity she used to do in her office.
"I had figured out a craft where you can take tampons, like a box of tampons, dip them in water and then whip them against a wall and they just splat and stay," Sarah added. "They'll stay forever."
Or at least a decade.
"I came back to SNL 10 or 15 years later," she continued, "and I saw [producer] Mike Shoemaker and he goes, 'Guess what's still in your office?' It was there!"
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。